It seems like every year I learn something new about that day in 1978 when I made my debut into this world…

“You were due on the third.” My mom told me several yeas ago.

“I was?…I must have been comfortable! I didn’t wanna come out!” I laughed. Homesick from the beginning. Because it wasn’t until the thirteenth that I was born, the second child in the Nielsen triangle….there on Pilot Point in Eglon. Stubborn from the beginning.

This is what I have come to understand about the day I was born:

Firstly, it was stressful for my father. So while my mother was giving birth to me, he left the hospital to go to Felipe’s to have pizza. (Love you dad.)

Secondly…it was those pre-ultra sound days. Everyone had assumed I was going to be a boy, because I was a Nielsen…and the Nielsen’s were a line of men, and because I was never petite, not once in this life, not even in the womb. When Doctor Ek announced that I was a girl, the first thing my mom said was, “Yeah, right….” Because everyone knew …the Nielsen’s are men…

“No, REALLY,” Dr Ek said. He held me up, ass end first, and showed my mother my parts to prove his point…and I imagine this first introduction to the outside world is why I look so irked in all my baby pictures.

The birthday before my aunt died (cause I seem to learn more and more as I go along), mom told me how when Kyle met her in the hospital to visit after she gave birth to me, Kyle said, “So sorry you got stuck with the girl. I wouldn’t want to have to deal with that.” (I love you too Aunt Kyle!…..-she loved me….we were just Nielsen’s….and honestly I wouldn’t have wanted to raise a daughter there either.) If I hadn’t grown up a Nielsen in Eglon, this comment would have confused me, but …I grew up a Nielsen in Eglon….Makes sense, in hindsight….I totally get my tomboy….and so very much appreciate my mother.